


Stained Glass Shatters

by SpellCleaver



Series: Xtober 2020 [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Luke Naberrie, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug, Murder, Vader is a ruthless dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29240364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpellCleaver/pseuds/SpellCleaver
Summary: Luke Naberrie hasn't heard from his father in eight months when he shows up to the gala he's attending and slaughters his friends.
Relationships: Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader
Series: Xtober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2112750
Comments: 14
Kudos: 100
Collections: Angstober 2020





	Stained Glass Shatters

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short one-off from Xtober, but I am continuing in my determination to archive all of these :D This one was written as a part of my eternal love for Luke Naberrie, despite never having actually written a longfic with Luke Naberrie.
> 
> Prompt: "I did it for you." [Original post here.](https://spell-cleaver.tumblr.com/post/630792853848735745/spells-october-writing-aims-day-1-angstober-i)

The words were a mantra as Luke backed away.

Vader reached a hand out after him, then withdrew it hastily; he remembered Padmé backing away, remembered how he’d reacted when he reached out— But Luke was still staring in horror, _backing away_ , and _Vader wasn’t going to lose him too—_

His son’s terrified eyes flicked between the two corpses on the Palace floor, dressed in Theed’s finest. Of course: Sola Naberrie had kept her nephew well sheltered from the cutthroats at court, but Vader had the Force, and he had _known_ what he needed to do.

“Luke,” he urged, “Luke, calm down—”

_“Calm down!?”_ Luke hissed. “ _Calm_ — Father, I haven’t seen you in eight months, you have _ignored me, for eight months,_ and now you turn up uninvited and _kill my friends in front of me!?_ ”

“It has been a difficult eight months, staying away from you, Luke,” Vader promised. The blasted boy was still backing away. It was a large room they were in, far from the ballroom that hosted the dance the esteemed Naberrie family had been attending; all the better for his son’s _friends_ to drug and kidnap him in.

“A _difficult eight months_!? That’s what you’re focusing on here?! YOU JUST KILLED MY FRIENDS!”

“I did it for _you_ , Luke—”

“Did I ask you to!?”

“I killed them for you, and I stayed away for you!” Vader boomed. “Palpatine knows there is something off about you, he is encroaching on you, _threatening_ you— _I did this to keep you safe_. I could not visit.”

“Oh,” the stained-glass window cast yellow and red onto Luke’s face; Vader did not like the amber sheen it lent his eyes, “but you can turn up to a random party and commit _murder_?”

“They were going to murder _you_.”

Luke was brought up short.

“What?” he said weakly. Poor boy, poor, naive boy… His legs were shaking, his voice was shaking, and Vader wanted nothing more than to hold him tightly and whisper that it would be alright.

But it wouldn’t be alright. Not since Vader had hidden his son with the Naberries, far from Palpatine’s gaze. Not so long as that despot ruled the universe.

“They were bribed by the Emperor,” Vader said. “That is why I am here—I received wind of it. Your _friends_ were going to drug you, kidnap you, then sell you out to the man who would have your head the moment he learnt who you were.”

Luke grasped the windowsill, sinking back against the wall. “No…” he whispered. “That… that can’t be true…”

“I am sorry, my son,” Vader said. “It is true.” He held out a hand. “I have spoken with your aunt. She agrees: it is time.”

Luke raised his watery gaze. “It’s time?” he said thickly.

“Yes.” Luke’s eyes fell on Vader’s outstretched hand. “Come with me, Luke. It is time to complete your training—it is time that we overthrew Palpatine for good. You need to hide no longer.”

Luke looked back at the corpses of his dead friends. Vader felt a twinge of remorse at the look of utter devastation in his eyes.

But only a twinge.

“Alright,” Luke said, still shaking. “I— I’m ready.” He took a few tentative steps forwards… and reached for Vader’s hand.

Vader closed his fingers around Luke’s, tightly enough that he couldn’t hope to escape his grip.

“Come, my son,” he said, wrapping an arm and a part of his cape around him. “Let us leave. We have much to catch up on.”

Luke swallowed. “Thank you for saving my life. Again.”

“I will always do what is necessary for you, son,” Vader promised. He always would.

He would keep Luke a secret for eighteen years, raised in safety with his mother’s family.

He would protect him from assassination attempts—real and imagined.

And when he suspected that Luke would be too attached to his Naboo friends, his trust in the people around him, his life in Theed, to ever agree to leave—too entrenched in love and loyalty, too _soft and fragile,_ to defeat Palpatine…

They left the cooling corpses in the room, untouched.

Vader would always come through for his son. Say exactly what he needed to say. Do exactly what he needed to do. Be exactly who he needed to be.

This was all done for Luke, after all.


End file.
